Page 111 of Witch You Would
“I’m not your mom.”
“No, you’re not. I’ve never seen you do something to intentionally hurt someone. That’s why I don’t understand why you won’ttell me what’s wrong now.”
Seriously? What the fuck?
“I’m not trying to push you,” he said. “If you tell me to, I’ll back off. But I spent a lot of years with my parents refusingto talk to each other except to fight, and I don’t want us to be like that.”
“What ‘us’?” I said, letting my hurt spill into my voice. “You said ‘us’ would be too hard, and you left me. You said it wasover.”
Gil’s eyes got huge as he jumped out of his chair. “What? I said what?”
I stood up, too. “You said you didn’t want to sneak around and end up on gossip sites. You said I deserved better.”
“Because you do!” He reached for me and I backed away. He let his hands fall.
“So how can you pretend like you don’t know what’s wrong? You dumped me! I was so happy, and you . . . I thought we were . . . Ithought . . .” Fuck, I was going to cry again. I would not let him see me like this. I could at least keep my dignity.
I yanked the door open and walked out.
“Oh my god, Penelope, no!”
I walked faster, I didn’t know which way. Away.
“Penelope! Holy shit, whatever I said, that’s not what I meant.”
I couldn’t breathe. Doors flew past me in a blur. Bathroom. Where was the bathroom?
“Penelope!”
Arms wrapped around me from behind. I struggled. Something hit the ground with a clatter. Gil picked me up and I squealed,kicking the air until he put me back down and let go. Crunch went something under my sneaker.
“Penelope, please,” Gil said. “Please, stop. I love... I love you!”
I froze. What?
“I love you,” he repeated. “I don’t want to have to sneak around because I want to be with you all the time. I don’t wantto fake flirt because I don’t want people to think you’re cheating on Leandro with me. He isn’t real. We are.”
Oh... Oh!
“I don’t know what I said last night, but obviously I totally fucked up. Please... please let me fix it? Please?” His voicecracked on the last word, as if he was struggling to keep it together as much as I was.
I turned around. His mouth was half-open, his forehead wrinkled, his eyes... his eyes!
“Your glasses,” I said. “Where are your glasses?”
We both looked around. I spotted them first, on the floor, where apparently I had stepped on them. They were totally destroyed.
Gil nudged the plastic shards with his shoe. “I don’t care. I’m done caring about Leandro Presto. I care about you more.”
The hole in my stomach flooded with butterflies that burst up and out, through my heart and my veins and the rest of my body, until it felt like I was floating.
I flew toward Gil, jumping on him so hard I nearly knocked him down. He caught me, and I kissed him, over and over. I kissedhim like I needed it to breathe, like our love was a spell we were casting on each other, binding us together with an enchantmentthat couldn’t be broken.
“I love you, too,” I whispered.
Behind us, someone started clapping. Shit, we had an audience. I looked over my shoulder as more people joined the applause.Little Manny whistled, and Big Manny grinned, and Liam gave us a double thumbs-up. Even Fina and Bruno were there, smiling,and in Bruno’s case, wiping a tear out of the corner of his eye.
Isaac was the only one who looked annoyed. He stalked over to us, glaring at Gil, his forehead charms flopping around.
